Edit Locked

Advertisement:

Wicked Lovely is a YA urban fantasy series by Melissa Marr. It consists of a book of the same name (2007), Ink Exchange (2008), Fragile Eternity (2009), Radiant Shadows (2010), Darkest Mercy (2011) and later Faery Tales & Nightmares (2012), a compilation of short stories set in the Wicked Lovely universe among others and Desert Tales (2013), a companion novel about a former Winter Girl.

Aislinn is an ordinary human girl - or she would be, if it weren't for the fact she can see faeries. All her life she's been terrified of them, trying to hide her gift to avoid attracting their attention. But that becomes very difficult when one very powerful faerie starts following her.

Keenan, the young king of the Summer Court, thinks she might be his prophesied Summer Queen. The one who'll save the fae world from the oppressive rule of the Winter Court. And it's not too long before Aislinn is pulled into a world of dark magic, political intrigue, and romance.

Advertisement:

This series provides examples of:

Above Good and Evil: How Irial perceives the Dark Court. See also this page's entry for Blue and Orange Morality.

Blue and Orange Morality: Pretty much everyone. For example, Donia stabbing Aislinn might seem like a pretty harsh move, but due to her position as the Winter Queen, it was politically (and, arguably, metaphysically) necessary for Donia to take whatever measures necessary to limit Summer's ability to meddle in her Court.

Dark Is Evil: The denizens of the Dark Court. Subverted somewhat with Irial and Niall, who consciously hold their Court at least somewhat in check. Water fey as well, as glimpsed throughout the series and in Darkest Mercy previews. FAR more so than the Dark Court, they are borderline sociopaths to mortal standards, or at least completely, utterly alien. Even most 'normal' fey fear them.

Dark Is Not Evil: Also applies to the Dark Court. Both Dark Is Evil and Dark Is Not Evil can apply to them because of the Blue and Orange Morality of faeries. Death fey like Far Dorcha and the Shadow Court as well.

Faeries Speaking English: Why Sorcha, who has been around literally forever, speaks perfect -if overly formal- modern English despite having never even been to the human world is the worst example, but it applies to several faeries. Mind you, it would be hard to write all dialogue in Gaelic, especially considering most readers wouldn't understand it, so this was probably a common-sense move on Melissa's part. Although faeries HAVE been said to possess the gift of tongues.

Important Haircut: Niall had much longer hair in the backstory, but cut it very short when he left the dark court, both as a symbolic gesture of 'not looking back' and for more practical trauma-related reasons, according to Word of God.

Interspecies Romance: Aislinn and Seth, Keenan and Donia (once Keenan is human and also when Keenan is courting Donia while searching for the Summer Queen), all of the courting with mortal girls Keenan does while trying to find the Summer Queen counts as well.

Jumped at the Call: Ani in Radiant Shadows. Given that she didn't fit in the Dark Court or among Gabriel's Hounds, it's quite understandable.

Making a Splash: Water fey, like Aobheall and Innis, have been mentioned throughout the series and according to the snippets on the author's website pay a big role in the final book. Namely, they're vital allies to the Courts in the final battle against Bananach.

Nobody Thinks It Will Work: The general reaction of the Summer Court to Aislinn's relationship with Seth. It works out in the end, though.

Not Himself: In Darkest Mercy, the shade of dead Irial persists in Niall's mind, and sometimes takes full possession of the body, causing the already-falling-apart-at-the-seams Niall to black out now and then, only to come to and realize that he's stabbed someone else without being aware of it and other such things. Keenan figures out what's going on after realizing that Niall is not himself and that Niall's behaviour is very similar to the last Dark King, Irial.

The Ophelia: If Sorcha wasn't one in Radiant Shadows, she was damn close.

Order Versus Chaos: High Court and Dark Court. Sorcha and Bananach. Reason and War. You can't kill one without killing the other.

Emotions vs. Stoicism: Though it plays out a bit differently then most examples of the trope, with Dark (emotion) fey being portrayed more sympathetically than their High Court (stoicism) counterparts.

Our Vampires Are Different: Not technically vampires, but needing others' blood is a result of Devlin being the creation of Sorcha and Bananach, and thus the balance between Reason and War.

Out with a Bang: Pity the poor innocent bystanders in Ink Exchange. Well, poor innocent quasi-bystanders.

Polyamory: Niall, Irial, and Leslie are all totally cool with their emotional - though not physical - three-way. To a lesser extent, Ani and Rae don't appear to have any qualms about sharing Devlin either.

The Power of the Sun: The Summer Court, of course, especially their king, Keenan. And later Aislinn as the Summer Queen. This comes into play in Fragile Eternity, when Aislinn is seriously wounded by Donia's ice and Keenan heals her by giving her some of his sunlight.

Put on a Bus: Being a pretty smart girl, Leslie puts herself on a bus at the end of Ink Exchange.

Shown Their Work: Marr generally gets the folklore right, though, of course, faery lore is already old enough and varied enough that Marr can have quite a bit of wiggle room to make any new innovations she sees fit.

Triang Relations: Of the polyamourous variety. Ani/Devlin/Rae is a type seven which turns into more of an eleven at the end of Radiant Shadows with the loyalty/friendship between Ani and Rae nonsexual in nature. Rae and Ani certainly don't seem to mind sharing Devlin. Irial/Niall/Leslie is a type eight.

The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Sorcha by Radiant Shadows. Aislinn also has elements of this. Subverted with Donia, who adapts to being Winter Queen surprisingly well. Completely averted with Ani, who pretty much jumps at the call where the Shadow Court is concerned.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy